Tag Archives: supermarket scanners

Roberta Alpert, of Somers, scans produce at the new Stop & Shop, formerly an A&P, in Mount Kisco. Photo by Tania Savayan/lohud

Charting a supermarket future in a dizzying present

It used to be you knew who your competition was.

“We have gone from 20th century wars where Gimbel’s fought with Macy’s and Coke fought with Pepsi to what is a 21st-century bar fight where everybody’s fighting with everybody else,” says supermarket expert Paco Underhill.

Nowhere is the competition fiercer than it is over the spending habits of millennials, and supermarkets are paying attention, and are prepared to make some changes.

Whole Foods, the store famous for fresh food and sticker shock, recognized that it was pricing itself out of a key segment of shoppers. In May, the chain announced it will create “new hip-cool technology oriented” stores geared to 18- to 34-year-olds.